Weekend in Buttermere - Photo Gallery
Movie clip of Sourmilk Gill
I drove up to the Lake District on Friday evening; my excuse for spending the weekend there was to meet and walk with members of the Online Fellwalking Club. The forecast for Saturday was the possibility of an intense storm with strong winds and gusts up to 80 miles per hour. I stayed at the Honister Hause Youth Hostel on Friday night; it looks like a prison camp hut from the outside but is a fairly standard youth hostel on the inside. These days the price for sleeping in a dormitory bunk-bed with breakfast at a Youth Hostel is not far short of buying a bed in a room by yourself with breakfast in a guest house.
On Saturday morning it was pouring with rain and I was wondering just how many OFC members would turn out to walk; the plan was to meet on the Swinside road near Hopebeck, walk to Hopegill Head and descend via Whiteside. There were six of us, visitors to the Lake District, who were waiting at the appointed place when a delegation from the “locals” arrived and suggested an alternative walk given the bad weather and the exposed nature of the planned route. We all went back to base camp where we agreed on an alternative, less-exposed route; I suspected that we wouldn't get any less wet.
It was raining when we set off from the cottage near the phone box in Loweswater; across the road is a gate giving access to a path across a field that meets a road at Foulsyke. We turned right at the road, walked the mile and a half to Thackthwaite and turned left opposite a posting box where a path went up by the side of Thackthwaite House. The rain paused long enough for some of us to remove items of waterproof clothing; although it was wet it was warm wearing all that gear.
The path took us steadily upwards over fields; there were step-stiles in all of the fences but being made from wood they can be hazardously slippery in wet weather. When we reached the intake wall there was another stile to cross before turning right on an obvious path through the bracken with an easy gradient uphill. The path bends around to go back to Low Fell so you have to pick your spot to cross a small depression and head over towards Smithy Fell; I didn't see any obvious turning point, we just relied on Roger's local knowledge.
After walking through wet bracken for a short while we reached grass and found the faint path again; after plodding uphill we reached yet another stile in a fence. It had started raining again, hard enough to justify putting the waterproofs back on; it had become windy too. After crossing the stile we turned right, following the fence into a small depression with the mandatory fence and stile; then the final steeper climb up a plain grass slope with the wind at our backs to the summit of Fellbarrow.
We didn't spend a lot of time at the summit before turning round and following the fence back over Smithy Fell and started the undulating grassy walk to Low Fell. We stopped for lunch in a sheltered hollow where Chris remarked that after this she could walk in any weather; “it could be worse” I replied, and sure enough it got worse. By the time we reached the summit of Low Fell the rain was driving across the fellside and the conditions were getting worse rather than better.
We carried on southwards from the summit past another cairn and made a steep but not unreasonable descent; it was mainly grass with some stones before reaching heather which then gave way to bracken. There were several fallers including myself; nothing serious but when your feet lose their grip you end up sliding a short way in a sitting position. The steepness ended when we eventually reached a gate in the intake wall at a wooded area; the path on more level ground was not obvious until we crossed another stile where a more obvious path took us back to Foulsyke and back to the start.
Without any delay I got back to Buttermere Youth Hostel where I was staying for the night and got my gear into the drying room; I pitied the poor campers going back to their wet field. The excuse for the weekend was a sociable evening at the Kirkstile Inn in Loweswater where we made arrangements to meet in Buttermere for tomorrow's walk.
Tomorrow came and Sunday morning was wetter than we had been hoping for; Chris and I waited for the others at the Fish Hotel for half an hour but set off by ourselves when they didn't turn up, there is no mobile phone signal in Buttermere and no way to contact them.
It wasn't raining when we set off; we walked to the footbridge across Buttermere Dubs where there was a huge amount water flowing out of the lake and coming down Sourmilk Gill. The path uphill has been re-reconstructed in the lower section and is much better than greasy stones I remember although higher up the original reconstructed path would be difficult to get down in the wet. The steep path goes up through the trees to a fence at the edge of the plantation where a gate gives you access to the open fellside. There is still a view below the cloud-base across the lake to High Snockrigg and down to Buttermere village surrounded by green fields.
The path from here zigzags up the steep slope and frequently we shared it with streams of water finding the easiest way downhill. The weather became worse; mist at first and then drizzle and it was raining by the time the upper part of Sourmilk Gill came into view. I eventually had to put my waterproofs on just before reaching Bleaberry Tarn; by the time we got to the tarn the visibility in the drizzle was so bad that I couldn't see the far side of the tarn whilst standing at the edge of it. The steep path is much more obvious from this point and the higher you get the more eroded it becomes; there has been an attempt to fix part of it but higher up it is in a very bad condition.
I couldn't see The Saddle or Dodd and by the time I reached the summit of Red Pike the conditions were dreadful; the heavy rain was being driven horizontally by a strong breeze. I did wonder for a second if I was going to be able to navigate along the ridge but by this time we had picked up a passenger; Vicky, who Chris had got to know at the hostel was suddenly not as confident in her GPS and compass. I'm not sure I would have carried on if I didn't know the ridge but you can't let the weather beat you every time.
From the summit cairn the path disappears for a while and I needed my compass to find it; shortly after finding the line of small cairns we reached some fence posts. The faint path follows the line of the fence posts but occasionally disappears on the slightly undulating ridge before the final climb up to a summit plateau. The path is less obvious on the rocky plateau but it is still big enough to walk past the summit cairn in this visibility if you are not taking notice.
At this point it is important to get the navigation right; don't follow the fence because it leads to a direct descent to Buttermere. From the summit cairn you start to follow the fence; soon, at the first cairn you have to take a bearing and follow it – trust your compass and stop to check your direction of travel every few yards. A path materialises after descending over rough ground; it is close to the edge but by now it is a good guide to where you should be going. Eventually the path moves away from the edge and you need your compass again to keep going on the same bearing to reach the summit of High Crag.
If you keep on going in the same direction you will start to descend; Gamlin End is much less of a problem these days with a reconstructed path replacing the slippery scree and then keeping a reasonably slip-free route down the steep grass. At last as we got near the bottom there was a break in the mist with glimpses of the valley and the obvious path on Seat. You have a bit of a climb up and across the shoulder of Seat before a rugged descent to Scarth Gap; there is a reconstructed path but the eroded sections make it interesting.
At Scarth Gap we saw the first other people of the day; Vicky left us there and walked back towards Buttermere as we continued onwards to climb Haystacks. For a small, unassuming hill it is an interesting climb; I managed to find a route that I haven't come across before which was a little bit more rugged than usual. By the time we reached the summit plateau the mist had come in again; after clambering up to some of the summit cairns we set off across rough ground to find the obvious path. It was only once we got past Innominate Tarn did the weather show any real signs of clearing up.
Once you get off the plateau there is another rugged, partly-reconstructed path going down to the outflow of Blackbeck Tarn; it was very full of water making the beck a bit more difficult to get across than usual. Once you get across the beck there is a reconstructed path upwards to reach the path along the top of Green Crag, the path is obvious but it was quite wet in places. We descended to where Warnscale Beck falls off the edge of Dubs Bottom; the easy stepping stones are not quite so easy when water is gushing over them. It took some time to persuade Chris that it would still be the best way to cross the swollen stream; after walking downstream a short way to look for alternative places it was obvious that it was the only place across.
After we got across the stream without getting wet feet we headed directly uphill; we followed a faint trodden path that avoided having to walk up through Dubs Quarry to find the main path to Fleetwith Pike. The way uphill wasn't too bad, walking on the short grass between the bracken and heather until we came across the main path leading to Fleetwith Pike's large summit cairn on top of a rocky crown. There were good views down to sunny Buttermere as it started to rain again; as we descended we left the rain behind and all of a sudden it was a lovely afternoon.
Fleetwith Pike is a teasing fell, it only shows you a small part of itself as you descend Fleetwith Edge but it isn't quite as demoralising as when you ascend. The path is steep and eroded in places but the view along the length of Buttermere and Crummock Water was good after a weekend of poor visibility. Eventually we got down to Gatescarth for the final walk in the sun along the lake shore path back to Buttermere.
Andy Wallace 2nd & 3rd September 2006